Flavourful Saskatoon, October 19, 2020
The Saskatchewan Food Industry Development Centre is offering a skill development program for women entrepreneurs in the food processing sector.
I would be interested in reading Beyond the Food Court: An Anthology of Literary Cuisines, “a collection of 14 creative non-fiction essays that delve in the subtleties, diversity, and individuality of ethnic cuisines beyond the uniform, kitschy offering at a typical mall food court” written by 14 Edmonton authors.
In the Kitchen
Sandor Katz says fermentation is a fact, not a fad. His new book, Fermentation as Metaphor, explores how fermentation applies to politics, religion, and cultural movements.
Fermentation pros may want to try their hand at nukazuke, making bran-fermented vegetables: “It’s kind of like a compost recipe.”
I have purchased a lot of spices – 3 separate orders! – during the pandemic. I was relieved to know I was not alone. Jay Rayner, British restaurant critic, shares my dilemma of an overflowing spice shelf.
BC Wine
In addition to spices, I’ve been stocking up on BC wine. There are so many wineries in BC these days so an updated version of the Okanagan Wine Tour Guide is greatly appreciated. It has been expanded to include wineries in Similkameen, Thompson, and the Kootenays.
Farmers’ Markets & Urban Planning
Whether you live in Hong Kong, London, Naples, or Saskatoon, farmers’ markets face the same problem – a lack of support and recognition for their role as community hubs:
Writing of Marseilles, the director Robert Guédiguian once said “All that squeezes itself between the buildings, that insinuates itself between the architectural drawings and political plans, must be carefully preserved because it is there that one finds the city’s future.”. In this category I would put markets ─ not the new street food markets, but the markets that get in the way of other people’s better laid plans. . . .
What strikes me though, is how often markets here are battlegrounds between encroaching developers, gentrification and communities. Perhaps because ‘market’ gets conflated with the many pop-up ‘street food’ stalls that itinerate round cities, coming and going in zones already earmarked for development, on land that is not truly public. Found especially in corporate lunch spots, their prices suggest a way of partaking in capitalism that is masked as somehow radical and ethical.
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Flavourful Saskatoon is a weekly Monday feature. I also post articles about food that is good, clean and fair; travel; and books. You may also enjoy EcoFriendly Sask profiling Saskatchewan nature/environmental initiatives and events.
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